Algore Looks for Another Kind of Green
After decades of using government to push his agenda Algore has entered the business world. While pushing alternative energy technologies he’ll also try to make a few bucks:
It’s lunchtime on Sand Hill Road, and Al Gore wants answers. “How does the efficiency decline with latitude?” he asks. “What size community could be served by one plant? If a manufacturer like GE wanted to make smaller turbines, would the technology support a smaller scale?”
We’re sitting in the giant conference room at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where the partners hold their weekly meetings. After loading his plate with Chinese food from a buffet, Gore is firing detailed questions at the management team of Ausra, a Kleiner-backed company in Palo Alto whose technology uses mirrors the width of a flatbed truck that focus the sun’s energy to generate electricity.
Once Gore is satisfied — sunlight lags north of South Dakota, an Ausra plant can serve 120,000 homes, and yes, smaller turbines will work fine — he shifts from inquisitor to fixer. He was chatting with California Senator Barbara Boxer “on the way over,” he reports, and he isn’t optimistic that Congress will extend the tax credits Ausra has been relying on. On the upside, he offers on the spot to organize a summit highlighting the company’s solar thermal technology to educate lawmakers and other policymakers on its potential. He also thinks a powwow at General Electric (Charts, Fortune 500) would be beneficial, even though Ausra is a tiny customer.
“I know Immelt well,” he says, referring to GE’s CEO. “We ought to set up a meeting.”
Gore appears utterly comfortable with this drill, but in fact he’s engaging in some on-the-job training. The recovering politician, environmental activist, and Nobel laureate is adding another title to his résumé: venture capitalist. After “a conversation that’s gone on for a year and a half,” according to Gore, he has decided to join his old pal John Doerr as an active, hands-on partner at Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley’s preeminent venture firm.
More power to him. Even with all his government connections Algore’s efforts will be judged by profit sizes and returns on investment. He might learn that much of the stuff he’s been touting won’t save the world like he hopes. The business world has a way of slapping people with reality.
“Al Gore’s Next Act: Planet-Saving VC“
Solar energy is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. Some of the more bullish have estimated a 64% yearly growth in the next 3 years and have likened it to investing in Yahoo in 1996. Algore (I still don’t understand why people with a certain political bent insist on spelling his name this way. It’s not a pun, isn’t funny and seems a bit childish.) may be smarter than you think… a lot smarter.